Tumble
by AerinM
Summary: My contribution for Warrenessa Day 2019. This was initially posted to tumblr. Potential Dragonwatch book 3 spoilers exist here. "Blood was everywhere. Panic began to swell within her. She wasn't used to that feeling."


_This is a late post to this site - I initially posted this on tumblr back in November or December in celebration of Warrenessa Day 2019. _

_Spoilers for Dragonwatch 3 abound. This oneshot was inspired by that one line from Vanessa to Warren. ;) I couldn't leave it alone, backstory was needed._

* * *

All it took was one misstep, and voila - everything changed.

Vanessa and Warren had been trying to carefully scout the islands in search of the Sunset Pearl - or find evidence of its location - when they realized they were being tracked. Unsure of what predator may have been following them, exactly, they'd decided to try and seek shelter somewhere secluded and cramped in order to (hopefully) avoid an unwelcome confrontation with something potentially nasty and dangerous.

They'd quickly scrambled up a semi-steep hill of grass and sand when they noticed that the terrain started to become rather rocky. The next area to climb consisted of layers of loose shoal and sharp rocks which jutted out of the ground at odd intervals; a very interesting geological formation which Vanessa would have loved to spend more time studying and exploring if they weren't in a hurry to shake off whatever was on their tail. They climbed the hillside as quickly and carefully as they could, neither of them feeling particularly safe while exposed on the side of a rocky hill.

Maybe it was the fact that they were rushing. Maybe she hadn't been paying close enough attention. Maybe it was purely physics.

Whatever the cause… she lost her footing and fell. Hard.

Vanessa cried out in pain, then bit down on her lip and tongue to try and silence herself. Not that there was much point in that effort; the rocks she slipped on had made quite a bit of noise as they started a chain reaction and caused a slide of additional rocks to cascade downhill. Warren turned around and grabbed hold of Vanessa's arm before she completely lost her balance and tumbled to the bottom of the hill along with the rest of the rumbling ground. Tears instinctually sprang to her eyes in reaction to her pain. She forced her eyelids open after a moment to assess the damage and found that her right calf had a very large and nasty gash running from nearly the back of her knee to about four inches above her heel. Blood was everywhere. Panic began to swell within her. She wasn't used to that feeling.

_We're sitting ducks in broad daylight, and I can't move._

Warren shifted until he was in a better position to examine Vanessa's wound, then smiled at her.

A forced smile.

"Can you stand?" he asked.

She doubted very much that standing was within the realm of possibilities, but said, "I'll try." She twisted carefully to her right and cringed when she realized that her hips, hands and arms were also scratched up pretty well. Her calf was by far the largest and most concerning injury, but the additional cuts and scrapes didn't make the situation any easier to deal with.

Warren helped her up, then caught her before she could hit the ground for the second time that afternoon. "That's a no," he stated. He looked around the area; Vanessa could tell that he was nervous. "We have to get off the side of this hill. Here… climb on."

"Climb on _what_, exactly?" she bit out. Her leg was screaming at her. Blood continued to seep out of her wound.

"My back," Warren replied as if stating the obvious. Maybe he _was_ being obvious, and she was simply in so much pain that she couldn't properly assess the situation. She watched as he removed his backpack, turned it around, and then placed his arms through the straps so that the bag itself rested against his chest.

Vanessa took a few deep breaths, then nodded her head. "Okay. Okay." Warren crouched down next to her and she somehow managed to clamber onto his back. When he stood up, she noticed that he was taking care to be aware of the huge gash in her leg. "This is dangerous," she said. "How are you supposed to get both of us out of this?"

"Shut up and let me think." After a couple of quick seconds, Warren seemed to decide something and nodded his head sharply, readjusted Vanessa's weight on his back, and slowly started climbing to their right instead of further upward like they'd initially been doing.

Vanessa wanted to ask him a million questions, but didn't want to distract him. She wanted to tell him to put her down and run for help, but could then promptly hear him telling her '_absolutely_ _not_.' And when her leg began to sting and burn, she held in her tears and and thanked whatever God existed that she wasn't alone.

Progress was very slow. The ground was unstable, and Warren was trying to move as carefully as he could. After perhaps fifteen minutes of grueling climbing, they reached a fairly level shelf of rock which appeared to be at least partially protected from the elements. Warren helped Vanessa down from his back, then took off his pack and fumbled through it for what she assumed were medical supplies. Sure enough, he wound up removing a roll of medical tape, several unopened packages of gauze, wound cleaning solution, a bottle of water, a small container of hand sanitizer, and some sort of thick paste Tanu had sent with them before they'd even left for this preserve in the first place. Vanessa, for her part, couldn't stop shivering even though she wasn't cold.

"Your body is in shock," Warren informed her.

'_Tell me something I _don't _know_' was the thought which immediately popped into her brain, but she swallowed those words. He didn't deserve that. "I've lost a lot of blood," she said instead.

Warren looked down at his side where her leg had been dangling. His pants were very wet with her blood. "I know," he replied. "I'm going to clean your leg. Hold still, this is probably going to sting pretty bad for a while." He cleaned his hands with some of the sanitizer, wet a piece of gauze with water from the water bottle, then set to work.

She hissed in pain when he started trying to clean the gaping wound on her calf. "I'm sorry," he said. "I know this sucks."

"You _would_ know," she retorted as she continued to scream internally at just how much her leg hurt.

"You should be grateful. Experience makes me an expert at wound care."

Vanessa lost track of time. She tried to just focus on breathing while Warren worked on bandaging her up. Her body continued to tremble, although the shaking eased up a little by the time he was done. She only realized he was finished when he held a water bottle out to her, along with a couple of pills he'd apparently found from somewhere; his backpack, probably.

"Ibuprofen," he explained. "Take it."

She swallowed the pills as instructed. "How are we going to get out of here?" she asked. "I can't walk, and the treehouse is too far for you to carry me. I'm amazed you made it this far with me on your back."

"I'll carry you to the treehouse," Warren said.

"Did you not just hear me? The treehouse is too far!"

"Have some faith in me, will you? I know what I'm doing. You and I have been in enough tight situations that I would hope you'd know that by now."

She let out a loud exhale. "Our best bet is probably for you to go run for help."

Warren glared at her, which quite honestly surprised her. "I'm not leaving you by yourself, behind enemy lines, with something actively tracking the two of us. You'd be the obvious target. I won't let that happen to you."

"Warren-"

"Don't '_Warren'_ me. I'm not leaving you alone, so stop suggesting it."

She knew the effort was futile, but between the pain still radiating from her leg, the hot sunshine in her face, the threat of some unknown creature probably wanting to eat them for dinner, and Warren's obstinate attitude, she couldn't help but argue.

"Why?"

"What? _Why?_"

"Yes. Why? Why did you keep me from falling to my death? Why did you carry me all the way over here? Why aren't you leaving me to go get help, when you and I _both_ know that's the best option to save at least one of us? Why? _Why?_"

Warren tugged at the hair on his head. "You are the most infuriating woman I have ever met."

"You're doing this because I'm _infuriating?_ That sounds like a good reason to push me off of this ledge."

"Vanessa! I'm not going to _hurt_ you, and I'm not going to _leave_ you!" he shouted.

She made eye contact with him. They stared at each other for a while before she spoke again.

"Maybe you should," she muttered.

"_What?_"

"Maybe you _should_," she repeated with a little more volume.

He set his backpack to the side and then sat down in front of her. "I heard you the first time," he said. "And I've already said no to that option."

"_Why?_"

_Why won't you save yourself? Please. Please save yourself._

She watched as he ran his hands over his face. He looked at her for a few seconds, then spoke. "Why?" he asked. "Because, probably against my better judgment by now… I still _love_ you, Vanessa. And I'm not going to leave the woman I love to face death by herself. Like it or not, I'm sticking with you. You're not dying on my watch."

Vanessa threw rationality out the window, grabbed the front of his shirt, and crashed their lips together. The kiss was short-lived, but it'd have to do for now. "Say it again."

"You're a little full of yourself, aren't you?"

"You _like_ kissing me."

Warren shrugged. "I love you."

She smiled. "I didn't ruin everything?"

"Well, there was that whole 'oh crap my girlfriend is trying to kill my family' thing, but you kinda redeemed yourself for that one. But Vanessa?"

"Yes?"

He looked at her seriously. "I'm trusting you. Again. I wasn't playing last time, and I'm pretty sure that what we had then was real for you, too, but this time… I'm… This is it."

Vanessa nodded and reached for his hand, then squeezed it. She understood his unspoken message.

_Don't hurt me again._

For at least the millionth time since she'd been sent to the quiet box all those months ago, self-hatred and regret started to creep into her heart. She brushed the emotions aside for the moment and focused on their current predicament. "How are we getting back?"

"You climb onto my back and I carry you to the treehouse." Warren started re-gathering their items.

Vanessa looked over the edge of the ledge they were sitting on. Climbing back down wasn't going to be easy. The loose rocks would pose a huge threat to their wellbeing.

"Hey," Warren said, grabbing Vanessa's attention. "Look at me, not the ground. I'll get us out of this mess. Trust me."

"I do."

"Well, then stop looking so nervous."

"Easier said than done, Warren. It's a long walk down, and the ground isn't solid. Climbing this hill in the first place has got to be one of the dumbest ideas we've ever thought of."

Warren shrugged. "You're forgetting Bolivia."

"Bolivia wasn't a dumb idea. Your execution of it was dumb."

"_My_ execution-? Wow, you and I must have very different recollections because I _distinctly_ remember that that plan was _your_ idea."

"Like I said, the idea itself wasn't dumb. The _actuality_ of it was."

Warren rolled his eyes and stood up. He held a hand out toward her; she took it and allowed him to help her stand. Vanessa placed no weight on her bad leg; Warren had bandaged her up very well indeed, but she knew she wouldn't be able to stand on it.

"We should ditch one of the backpacks," Warren said. "Get rid of as much weight as possible."

Vanessa gestured to hers, which still rested on the ground. "Leave mine," she said. "There's nothing in it worth keeping anyway."

"You probably have blow darts or throwing knives in yours," Warren reasoned. "If I'm doing the walking, you'll have to be on the lookout."

"Front pockets," she instructed. Warren bent down and fetched an assortment of small weapons from Vanessa's bag. "And the sides. Everything else can stay here."

He handed her the items, which she found hiding places for on various parts of her person. "Just like Bolivia," Warren remarked as he watched her tuck a couple of small throwing knives into her shirt.

"This is nothing like Bolivia."

"Says the woman with knives in her bra."

"Can we leave yet? Or are you going to stand here and falsely reminisce all day? Because I'd rather be sitting if that's your plan."

Warren smirked at her, then placed his backpack over his chest like he had earlier and motioned for Vanessa to climb onto his back. She did so with caution, not wanting to injure herself or cause him to topple over.

"I'm ready," Vanessa said once she was confident in her ability to maintain a solid grip on his shoulders and waist. "Slowly, now."

"Yes, Princess," Warren teased.

Vanessa rolled her eyes, although she knew he couldn't see her. Curse him. Him and his stupid sense of humor, trying to lighten the mood.

She had to admit, though… he was great at it. He was great at a lot of things, actually. Like climbing down steep rock faces with loose footing and a passenger, and then carrying said passenger all the way back to their home base.

They never did find out what had been tracking them; whatever it was, it seemed to lose interest in them when they drew close to the Lagoon. Vanessa was grateful for that; Warren was very obviously worn out from their trek by then, although he stubbornly continued forward until they reached their destination.

Her stalwart companion. Her irreplaceable man.

Her love.


End file.
